Thousands of men and women led by hundreds of monks of the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force, staged a rally outside Colombo to announce the boycott, demanding that shops clear their stocks of halal food by April.

"More than 90 percent of the population are Buddhists, Hindus and Christian and therefore there is no justification to force them to eat halal products," Buddhist monk Kirama Wimala Jothi said in a statement.

He urged Sri Lanka's non-Muslim majority to boycott any product with the halal label and asked the government to outlaw Islamic clerics issuing such certification.

The halal method of killing an animal requires it to have its throat slit.

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Is there any problem in eating halal foods? I dont know. Halal food is generally processed properly, in more hygienic way and anybody irrespective of religions can consume without any problem.

: Vampire knight

I thought Buddhist teaching is to treat animals kindly --so why are they into meats?